THE CHOICE IS FEDERAL GRANT MONEY OR THE SECOND AMENDMENT? THAT’S A CHOICE?

Your 2nd Amendment Rights are on the Line!

Dear Fellow Patriots,

My HB 2340, which says Virginia law enforcement and the National Guard will not enforce any new federal gun control efforts, was to be voted on by the full House of Delegates today. However, the House of Delegates shamefully voted to send my HB 2340 to the Appropriations Committee with a non-recorded vote to look into “concerns” that Virginia might lose federal grant money for Joint Task Forces as a result of this bill. This is simply not true!

HB 2340 will not prevent a state or local official from participating in such task forces or from aiding a federal official in an investigation related to a federal crime such as kidnapping across state lines, or a drug operation just because the person being investigated happened to be in possession of a firearm made illegal through new Federal gun controls. As such there should be no reason for the Federal government to withhold funding for such Task Forces. What HB 2340 WILL DO is give Virginia a leg to stand on in opposing new Federal gun control legislation.

On the floor today I equated failing to protect the Second Amendment rights of our citizens to accepting 30 pieces of silver from the Federal Government in exchange for a fundamental right.

Delegate Kirk Cox (R-66) raised the objection about losing Federal funding but when questioned could not point to any funding that has been lost as a result of HB 1160 which became law July 1, 2012.

HB 1160 was very similar to HB 2340 with regard to the method used to stand against the Federal Government’s intrusion into the Constitutional rights of Virginia citizens. In that case the bill was to keep Virginia from assisting the Federal Government in detaining citizens with no trial and no charges filed under the NDAA. To my knowledge no funding has been withheld by the Federal Government as a result of HB 1160 becoming law and none would be withheld as a result of HB 2340.

I requested a record vote on the motion to refer the bill to Appropriations, but could not even find the necessary 20 members willing to second my demand for a record vote. I asked for a division which resulted in an overwhelming number of Republicans raising their hands (in addition to the Democrats, of course) to send the bill to the Appropriations Committee. I could only identify 4 other members who voted not to send the bill to Appropriations, Delegates Mark Cole, Todd Gilbert, Scott Lingamfelter and Tony Wilt. If the Appropriations Committee fails to take the bill up or make a motion on the bill, every member must be held accountable because silence on HB 2340 is consent to an agreement with federal efforts to abridge our Second Amendment rights.

PLEASE CONTACT THE MEMBERS OF THE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE BELOW AND URGE THEM TO ACT WITHOUT DELAY TO SEND HB 2340 TO THE FULL HOUSE OF DELEGATES FOR A VOTE BEFORE CROSSOVER, OR HB 2340 WILL BE KILLED AND VIRGINIA WILL BE LEFT WITH NOTHING TO PROTECT IT’S CITIZENS FROM NEW FEDERAL GUN CONTROL LAWS!

This is similar to what the feds told Alaska when we removed MTBE from our gasoline back in 1992. It was making people violently sick because of the way it hung in our cold air. Our governor told the EPA to go pound sand and the EPA threatened to withdraw federal highway funding. A couple of years later, it was revealed that MTBE is a carcinogen that has polluted the water table of 48 states. The EPA banned it, conveniently forgetting that they were the ones who required it in the first place. In the meantime, Alaska still got its federal highway funds and we still didn’t use MTBE.

States need to stand up to the federal government and refuse to compromise when they violate the 10th amendment. I think battles like the one I describe suggest that the federal government has too many hands doing too many things to actually coordinate a retaliation.

aurorawatcherak – Looks like you know abourt MTBE than I do, but I never liked the stuff. When government forces us to do something we do not otherwise do, it usually results in trouble.

Why didn’t the EPA just punish the polluters and let the oil and car companies figure out their own solutions? The answer? Socialist Democrats are busybodies.

Busybodies. Does that sound too simple? To some degree, we are all busybodies. We like to see others follow the same example we follow. Better yet, we like to have the affirmation of others following our own example. Socialist Democrats crave such affirmation. So they refuse to take “no” for an answer. That is, because it makes them feel so good and powerful, they insist that everyone believe and do the same thing. Even when they tout diversity, they insist upon rigorous conformity. Therefore, when we let such people take charge, we end up with forced “solutions” like MBTE.

Carried to the extreme, busybodyism becomes vile tyranny. In the extreme, busybodies become the vanguard of the proletariat and Nazi stormtroopers.

Words From The Past

As I have said, there are two points or two characteristics of the Radical programme which it is your special duty to resist. One concerns the freedom of individuals. After all, the great characteristic of this country is that it is a free country, and by a free country I mean a country where people are allowed, so long as they do not hurt their neighbours, to do as they like. I do not mean a country where six men may make five men do exactly as they like. That is not my notion of freedom.

Speech to the third annual banquet of the Kingston and District Working Men's Conservative Association (13 June, 1883).

'The Marquis Of Salisbury At Kingston', The Times (14 June 1883), p. 7.